Government plans to raise Rs 300 crore from RailTel IPO by September

The government is targeting to raise over Rs 300 crore through an IPO (Initial Public Offering) of RailTel Corporation and has asked the telecom infrastructure provider to speed up finalising its books of accounts for 2018-19. In December 2018, the Cabinet approved IPO of RailTel by diluting up to 25% government stake.

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An official said,”The plan is to launch the IPO by September. We are looking to raise about Rs 300 crore from the share sale.”

Of these, IRCON and RITES were listed in 2018-19 and RVNL in April 2019.

The government has budgeted to raise Rs 90,000 crore through PSU divestment in current fiscal, compared to Rs 84,972 crore raised in 2018-19.

Southern Railway to upgrade 61 trains under project ‘Utkrisht’

Date : May 13, 2019

The Southern Railway will complete upgradation of 61 trains under the project ‘Utkrisht‘ soon. The Tambaram-Nagercoil tri-weekly express, which was upgraded under the scheme, was flagged off from Tambaram recently.

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An official said,”In the first phase, 10 trains were upgraded under the Utkrisht programme. In the second phase, 64 trains were allotted for upgradation for Southern Railway.”

Out of that, 3 trains have been upgraded and the upgradation of the remaining 61 trains will be completed soon, the official said.

The total outlay for upgrading 64 trains in Southern Railway was Rs 67.75 crore, he said.

Utkrisht project involves upgradation of 640 train rakes for improvement in passenger amenities and comfort in the next 2 years at an estimated cost of Rs 400 crore.

It involves giving new paint to the coaches, changing damaged seats and berths, refurbishing the toilets, providing LED lighting and braille inside the compartments and gangways, and enabling coach maintenance services onboard.

Last year in December, Kongu Express which runs between Coimbatore and Hazrat Nizamuddin was the first train to be flagged off under project Utkrisht of the Southern Railways.